Saturday, November 7, 2015

NEUROPOLITICS: CAMPAIGN IN THE MEMBRAIN ~Einstein’s apocryphal
comment stating, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results.” what~ta say Frank , Waiter: Telephone call, commissioner. Commissioner Anabell Brumford: Thank you. [picks up phone] Commissioner Anabell Brumford: Hello?... He did what?... How many animals escaped?... Oh, my God... Lt. Frank Drebin: Good evening, commissioner. You're looking lovely tonight. Commissioner Anabell Brumford: Do you realize that because of you this city is being overrun by baboons? Lt. Frank Drebin: Well, isn't that the fault of the voters? [Frank walks away, leaving Commissioner Brumford with an astonished face]

NEUROPOLITICS

CAMPAIGN IN THE MEMBRAIN

A couple of days ago, I received a message on my Facebook about the
programming that I create for my show. I get them from time to time
and they usually come from people who demand I do more paranormal shows
when I do shows about conspiracies and cover-ups and others are
demanding I do more conspiracy and cover-up shows instead of paranormal
shows. However, those who send the messages about the conspiracies and
cover-ups shows mistakenly call them political shows. I often grit my
teeth whenever I hear them called political shows and I attempt to
correct the person by saying, “I don’t do political shows, I do
parapolitical shows.”Parapolitcs is more about political science theory where I attempt to
try to understand why something as flawed as the political system and
those who run for political office are even seen as competent or even
mentally capable of understanding what true leadership is. I also have a
hard time understanding why one political party sees themselves as
superior when both parties have enabled criminal behavior, corruption
and moral decay in our government.In all truth, I believe the politics are a distraction and to be blunt, they suck.Politics suck. I can’t express how much they suck and so do blowhards
that create division in this country by indicating the group they
identify with has the answers to solving our nation’s problems. We are always told before we go to the polls that every election is
the most important election of our lives and the misfit toys which are
forced on us in the end are always defective and have a row of skeletons
in their closet that they hope the voters forget about as they take the
throne of commander-in-chief. I believe that every election exemplifies Einstein’s apocryphal
comment stating, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results.” I know it’s an over-used cliché but it
more than applies to what I am about to talk about.Insanity, futility, repetition, and epic failure describe our political system and there is a very good reason why. Because if parapolitics can be seen as neuropolitics – we can ascertain that our political hopefuls are mentally ill. I am not just saying that because I hate politics I am wondering why
we have been so lucky to choose a president that has no mental
deficiencies. I mean, are we incapable of voting for a potential Hitler
or a narcissistic Mussolini or even a murderous Stalin?What makes us so sure of the sanity of those who wish to occupy one of the most powerful positions in the world?I was thinking about this when I was watching Saturday Night Live.
The first one of this season was hosted by Miley Cyrus. Throughout the
show, there was plenty of political satire hinting that our presidential
hopefuls are mentally vacant.There was an opening sketch where Taran Killam plays Donald Trump. He
plays up Trump in a parody fashion that looks as if Trump has mood
swings like an 8 year old. A parody commercial for Abilify, especially prepared for delusional
presidential candidates was especially funny, if not cruel and truthful.
The commercial pointed out that Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and Jim
Gilmore are crazy if they even think they have a shot at being
President.

Abilify for Candidates - SNL

There was also a Hillary Clinton sketch where Hillary played by Kate
McKinnon is depicted as a power hungry maniac who is drinking and
lamenting on why the American people won’t just let her lead —give her
the hammer and nails and let her fix it all. Ironically, the real
Hillary Clinton shows up as “Val” the Bartender in the skit.While we can write all this off as parody, the thought of a
presidential candidate with something more than the flaw of narcissism
is an intriguing thought and should be explored by the voting public. Politico Magazine explored this issue with an extraordinary article
by Alex Thompson. In the article called, “Could America Elect a Mentally
Ill President?” Yes, in fact we probably already did we learn that we
have seen many taboos in our leaders that we always seem to forgive.Things like congressmen being openly gay, DUIs, mistakes made when
young, dodging the draft, womanizing and using illegal drugs like
cocaine and marijuana. But when it comes to mental illness or even something as simple as a
weakness, this may be the thing that is kept quiet and the question is
why? Lately we have seen politicians and the media exploit mental
illness in average citizens who commit crimes or even flee from the
police. It is a simple observation leading to the speculation that Donald
Trump is narcissistic, Joe Biden suffers from depression, Hillary
Clinton is paranoid, and that Jeb Bush has issues that may be resolved
on a psychiatrist’s couch.Learning of any mental deficiency in the Whitehouse would create a
crisis of confidence and would be politically damaging, so any
revelation would most definitely be covered up.According to the Politco article: “More than 40 years have passed since Thomas Eagleton, the 1972
Democratic vice presidential candidate, withdrew from the race after
revealing that he had been hospitalized for depression. Since that
political firestorm, the issue has remained firmly off-limits: No
Democratic or Republican nominee running for President or Vice President
has disclosed mental illness or treatment for it ever since —to do so
would be politically incurable.”After President Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinski, his
mental health was called into question. Rather than seeing a
psychiatrist for possible sex addiction, he told reporters that he was
receiving counseling from Christian minister.An even greater cliché is that you have to be nuts to be President,
however once again, it may apply as there have been many accounts that
we have already chosen Presidents having had mental illness.It was reported further in the Politico that:“Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy clandestinely filled their
medicine cabinets with psychotropic drugs, according to recent
declassified documents. In fact, Kennedy aide and historian Arthur
Schlesinger Jr. suggested in his journals that several modern presidents
were mentally unbalanced; he recorded top aides arguing whether
President Lyndon Johnson was clinically paranoid or a manic-depressive,
and fretted that there was no constitutional procedure for dealing with
presidents who are nuts.”So perhaps mental illness is more common in Washington than we think? After all, a fifth of American adults use psychotropic medication,
mood stabilizers, and SSRI’s and millions go to talk therapy for their
mental health. Why shouldn’t the people governing the country be able to
as well?We always say we want our government officials to be brain-healthy, with sanity, integrity, and high moral values. But in all reality self-centered partisan politics in Washington DC –
with Democrats and Republicans stalemating each other, and constant
“witch hunts” aiming to destroy opposing party members – suggest that
Congress is a dysfunctional playground for narcissists and sociopaths. Our leader’s relentless instigation of international wars and
conflicts also hints at psychopathic behavior. It is evident in the
bullying self-righteousness of the executive branch. Wall Street’s
reckless behavior, crippling the economy and requesting a bailout,
indicates the “Too Big to Fail” attitude that reeks of self entitlement
which is another component of narcissism.One of the biggest indicators of narcissism is the over-saturation of
candidates wanting to run on the Republican ticket. Many of them don’t
stand a chance but can’t stand the thought of not being in the limelight
and having “past presidential candidate” tacked on to their name.The celebrity status of the Presidential hopefuls has been fueled by
the media. Campaigns used to get underway a year or two before the
election. Now, we have had three solid years of disproportionate
bombardment and meaningless attention of Presidential hopefuls in order
to feed their egos.People don’t run for President anymore and that is a fact. That is
because these politicians aren’t real people in the metaphorical sense;
they are propped up as models, well-groomed and made up like rock stars
with no real ideology or even vision.If there were any morals or even any sense left in them they would
step aside and allow for a person who is in touch with reality, take a
swing at the office of President. Maybe it would be wise to at least
allow for a civilian adviser to get the job of leading done while the
president is preparing for their appearance on the Tonight Show. We all know that Nixon appeared on Laugh In, but that was after he knew that the people saw him as a joke.Now, we have politicians desperate for attention and would do anything in order to be top of the mind and getting headlines.President Obama set aside funds for the decade-long Brain Activity Map project in his federal budget proposal.Scientists involved in planning the project are hoping that it will
have the same catalytic effect on brain research as the $3.8 billion
Human Genome Project had on genetics and that it will spur the
development of new therapies for various brain diseases.Brain mapping is the politically correct way of brain fingerprinting.
The unfortunate thing is that while the abuses are possible, the
benefits are an important selling point. Brain mapping successfully
helps neurologists to detect early signs of Alzheimer’s disease and
other disorders without invasive surgical procedures.The temptation to use brain fingerprinting for purposes beyond
medical practice may be irresistible for governments and corporations
with access to the technology.They of course could use it to screen out people who have mental
issues in places of employment, and colleges. Perhaps it would be fair
to turn this new brain technology on the leaders themselves, and in
order to weed out the psychopaths and narcissists they would have to
submit to a procedure known as Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging or
FMRI. There have been numerous philosophical attitudes towards human
consciousness and subjective experiences to create a hypothetical subset
of philosophical “zombies” who are human beings that do not experience
the same reality as the consensus.Their electrical activity in the brain differs from the majority
sub-set of humans and can be seen as function in a spectrum that can be
determined as being dysfunctional or may even be determined to have a
propensity for bullying, a sense of entitlement and violent behavior.According to Hank Pellissier of Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies:“FMRI scans are increasingly able to identify narcissism. Studies
since 2013 indicate that brain regions associated with narcissism can
be measured.”For example, “Those with Narcissistic Personality Disorder had
smaller gray matter volume in the left anterior insula” and “smaller
gray matter volume in fronto-paralimbic brain regions comprising the
rostral and median cingulate cortex as well as dorsolateral and medial
parts of the prefrontal cortex.” Thinness of brain tissue in these
regions indicates a weakened ability in “processing and generating
compassion”, i.e., a lack of empathy, an absence of caring for others. If this is combined with excessive activity in brain regions related to self-absorbed thinking – narcissism is flourishing.Politician’s financial records are already scrutinized, plus
reports of their medical health. Their monetary and physiological data
is deemed crucial enough for the public to examine. Mental health transparency is even more imperative to publicly
view. We want trustworthy public servants to represent us, not callous,
paranoid, power-hungry narcissists.”He goes on to say that “The horror of Adolf Hitler would have been
prevented, for example, if 1930’s technology included MRI scanning that
revealed, via transparency politics, his messy brain to the public.
Psycho-Historical analysis have categorized the Nazi terror as
schizophrenic, paranoid, anti-social, narcissistic, and sadistic.”FMRI’s are being used in India as “lie detectors” or to identify
those who function on a different cognitive level. People are being
jailed after lie-detecting brain scans find them guilty. The science is
flaky, but this is just the latest instance of neuro-imaging being used
to ‘read’ the human mind – in fact authorities who use this technology
have already been called ‘neuro cops‘.Cephos Corp of Massachusetts has been marketing what it calls
“commercially available FMRI-based deception-detection services”, based
on software analysis of subjects’ MRI brain scans. In a study of 61
people, Cephos claimed better than 90 per cent accuracy in determining
deception. In California, meanwhile, No Lie MRI charges clients $4,000
to $5,000 to conduct lie-detection tests using the technology.You see, brain mapping is already being used on regular people —perhaps it should be used on politicians.But that would be unethical, wouldn’t it?